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Out of Sight, Still in Mind: Intersession Processes and Suicidal Ideation in Psychodynamic Treatment - Mareike Ernst, PhD (Webinar live onlive)
2026 Grand Rounds Series
This presentation introduces the concept of intersession processes—patients’ thoughts, feelings, fantasies, and internalized experiences of therapy and therapist between sessions—and examines their relevance from a contemporary psychodynamic perspective. Drawing on psychodynamic theory and empirical research, the talk will discuss how intersession processes may illuminate clinically meaningful fluctuations in suicidal ideation, including both protective and risk-related dynamics in outpatient treatment. Particular attention will be given to recent findings showing how both between-person and within-person variation in intersession experience can deepen our understanding of suicidal processes beyond symptom severity alone. It will further consider how the study of intersession life may open new avenues for clinically sensitive routine monitoring, smartphone-based assessment, and personalized interventions, while also inviting a critical discussion of the conceptual and methodological limitations of integrating intersession-focused assessment into care.
Target Audience
______ Introductory ___x___ Intermediate ______ Advanced
Learning Objectives
- Participants will be able to describe the concept of intersession processes and explain their relevance within psychodynamic theory and psychotherapy research.
- Participants will be able to analyze how intersession experiences may function as protective and risk indicators of suicidal ideation (also differentiating the between- and within-person level).
- Participants will be able to critique the potential and limitations of integrating the assessment of intersession processes into routine care, including using smartphone-based methods.
Mareike Ernst, PhD, is a tenure-track assistant professor of psychodynamic psychotherapy research at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, and a visiting researcher at the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab at the University of Glasgow, UK. She is in advanced clinical training as a psychodynamic psychotherapist. She studied psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt and completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Her research integrates psychodynamic theory with empirical clinical science, including intensive longitudinal methods such as ecological momentary assessment. Her main research interests include suicidality and associated risk and protective factors, loneliness, personality functioning and personality pathology, and process-outcome research in psychotherapy. A central aim of her work is to better understand how clinically meaningful processes unfold both within therapy sessions and in patients’ internal experience between sessions, with the broader goal of translating empirical insights back into psychotherapeutic practice.
Austen Riggs Center Inc. adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. All those at Austen Riggs Center involved in the planning of this activity, including the presenter(s) listed above, report they have no relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company*.
The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Austen Riggs Center.
* An ineligible company is any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
ACCME - As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.00 APA
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for 1.00 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
- 1.00 ASWB-ACE
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organization, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this. Social workers completing this Webinar live will receive 1.00 continuing education credit(s).
Austen Riggs Center, Inc is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0843.
- 1.00 Contact Hours/ ParticipationA certificate of attendance for all Learners.